


Lost & Found

by wand3rlust



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Airports, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Awkward Flirting, Flirting, Fluff, M/M, marked teen for language only, otherwise it would be completely G
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-29
Updated: 2014-06-29
Packaged: 2018-02-06 17:42:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1866663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wand3rlust/pseuds/wand3rlust
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After getting through security James realizes he's grabbed the wrong laptop bag. A fluff filled airport/bag mix up modern au! Enjoy!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lost & Found

The airport is packed and the line for security is as long as James has ever seen it. There’s a sign at the entrance that says to check your boarding pass for TSA pre-clearance, but he has no such luck. Unfortunately, security is always even longer for him due to the metal bone prosthetic in his arm from surviving bone cancer as a teen. There’s always secondary screening anytime metal detectors are involved.

He pulls his laptop out of his leather bag places it in a bin and loads his shoes, jacket and the bag into additional bins. The body scan earns him a questionable look from the TSA man standing to the side who instructs him firmly to hand over his boarding pass and stand on the feet shaped marks to the right of the machine. He instructs him to raise his arms and begins patting down his pant legs at the ankles and moving up. He’s wearing black skinny jeans and couldn’t hide anything in them if he tried, but apparently they disagree.

"Sir," he says, "I have prosthetic stainless steel bones in my shoulder and upper arm. There’s a scar on the bicep of my left arm, you can see for yourself."

The man makes a grunt noise but continues his search like he hadn’t heard a thing. It’s uncomfortable. Always has been, like he has to prove himself not dangerous just for surviving. It’s the reason he avoids flying, baseball games and anywhere with metal detectors if he can really help it. 

The man pats down his waist, torso and under his armpits before he slides the left sleeve of James’ faded blue t-shirt up revealing the long scar that extends all the way up to his shoulder. It must be proof enough because the guy nods and looks at the boarding pass. “You’re clear Mr. Barnes. Thank you for your patience,” and hands him back the pass.

James wants nothing more than to tell him where he can stick his patience, but figures it’s not worth the fight now that he’s through, so he goes to collect his things instead.

His laptop, shoes and jacket are piled at the end of the rollers, but his bag is missing. He tries not to panic and after a moment of scanning the area finally he locates it sitting on the ground off to the right. He quickly shoves his laptop in the bag and grabs his things so he can go put his shoes back on.

As he tying the laces on his shoes an odd, almost bird chirping noise comes from beside him. He looks around and there’s no one else around him, no phones sitting on the seats next to him. The noise comes again and that is definitely birds chirping. He realizes finally that it’s coming from the side pocket of the leather bag.

He pulls out a phone that is definitely not his own and realizes with sudden dread that the bag at his feet is not his bag at all. The phone vibrates in his hand and chirps again. He has to smile because it sounds like birds from a disney movie. As he turns it over in his palm he can see the message as a pop up notification on the screen:

> (212) 555-3257: ne one there?

That’s definitely his own phone number. He’s suddenly thankful he doesn’t have a passcode on his phone for once. The phone in his hand is locked though and won’t let him reply to the message. He stands up and looks around eagerly hoping to spot the mysterious texter.

The phone chirps again and another message notification pops up.

> (212) 555-3257: If u find this phone/bag pls meet @ Caribou Coffee near the gift shops - gate 78 b4 1:45 to swap or will take these to lost & found. I’ll be the good looking one in the hat.

James laughs at the final line and glances at the time,1:25. His flight departs in about an hour and thankfully it’s is out of gate 82 so it won’t be out of the way at all. He dims the screen and shoves it back into bag side pocket as he says a small prayer that this isn’t about to be some kind of weird “Taken” incident. Steve would absolutely kill him, if Natasha didn’t get there first.

As he reaches the coffee stand it’s surprisingly not busy, but it is a little out of the way of normal traffic. He spots his bag sitting on a table nearby first, but his attention is quickly snapped to the accurately self-described good looking man in the hat. An adorable brown newsboy cap, in fact. James can’t help but eye his entire profile. Dark wash jeans that hug his legs in all the right places and a burgundy sweater that compliments his soft brown skin. He’s leaning against the counter with a crooked grin, visibly flirting with the woman working there. She’s a very pretty woman who is blushing pretty hard and James can’t blame her at all, especially when the laughs outright at something she says.

James can’t help his own smile spreading across his face at the sound and is suddenly startled to embarrassment when he realizes the woman at the stand is looking directly at him and pointing him out. He clears his throat, and runs his hand through his hair as he tries unsuccessfully to ignore the rapid pulse in his neck and the heat growing in his ears. The man tips his hat to the woman at the counter smiling again and then turns walking towards him.

"Hi," says James with a nervous smile.

Suddenly the man’s face is very stern and serious. “So you’re the one who stole my bag, huh?”  he says as he eyes the bag on James’s shoulder.

"Wha- No. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to, I was stuck with security, I must’ve grabbed—"

"Dude," he laughs slapping James’ shoulder, "I’m just fucking with you."

"Oh." This is mortifying, he’s making himself look like blubbering fool. "Sorry." he laughs all the nerves bundled up in his stomach now.

"You apologize too much. We’ll have to work on that."

James huffs half amused half offended. This guy doesn’t even know him. “Oh um, I’m James by the way,” he says holding out his hand and realizing too late that it’s a little damp.

"Sam," he replies gripping James’s hand firmly with his own distractingly soft hand."Come on we’ll get this stuff sorted out," he motions back towards the coffee stand. "The lovely Miss Skye here will hook you up with whatever you want."

He orders an iced coffee with cream and Skye smirks at him oddly as she hands over the cup and straw.

"Simple man," says Sam nodding in approval as they finally take a seat at the table with his bag, "I like it."

James pulls his laptop out of Sam’s bag and hands it over. “Sorry again,” he says rubbing his hand nervously over the back of his neck, “security kinda held me up and I wasn’t paying attention, I guess.”

"Dude," Sam laughs, "seriously stop. I know how much a pain in the ass security can be."

"I’m sure," he laughs—oh fuck— "I mean, uh…" fuck fuck fuck, he wants to die right now, "i didn’t mean that like…"

"Just uh, stop while you’re ahead," says Sam laughing more to himself and shaking his head.

James can’t help but hide his face for a moment and wishes intensely for the power to become invisible. “I really am sorry,” he says again finally braving a glance back at Sam.

"Don’t sweat it," he shrugs, "I know what you meant."

There’s a brief awkward silence and James can feel himself getting fidgety, so he tucks his laptop into his own bag and sets it on the floor by his feet.

"You gonna actually drink that or what?" Sam teases breaking the silence.

He’d nearly forgotten about his drink, when James pokes the straw into the lid, he notices Skye has written, “bag thief” on the side of the cup and he can’t help but laugh out loud. He glances back over his shoulder at her and she just shrugs with an innocent smile.

"So, simple man James, with good taste in bags, who also apologizes too much, where are you headed?"

James tries not to grin too wide at that, so he takes a sip of his coffee. “Back home, to New York, Brooklyn actually, you?”

"No shit! My sister lives up there. I’m actually headed back home to DC myself."

"Really? What do you do in DC?"

"I’m an avian specialist, work with birds, bird rescue, the zoo. Anywhere I can."

"Oh," James laughs, "that explains the chirping."

"Hey," Sam cocks an eyebrow at him, "don’t mock the chirping."

James bites his lip to hold back another laugh, “I’m not, it’s cute.”

"Dude, no," Sam says sternly but he’s grinning, "birds are badass! They’re not cute like little flying cartoons. You should see some the the things these birds come back from, oil spills, careless littering, broken wings, it’s amazing."

At that James’ stomach does a flip and he can’t help but grin as he rubs a hand over the sleeve covering his scar on his left bicep. “That is awesome.”

He can tell Sam is a pretty amazing man even though he’s only known him for a total of 10 or 15 minutes.

"So what’re you doing up in Brooklyn?"

"I’m actually, crashing with my best friend  while I go back to school. I mean, I have a part time job bartending, but it’s mostly school."

"Yeah? That’s cool, man. What’re you studying?"

"Biomedical Engineering and Prosthetics," he glances down feeling a little awkward and exposed even though Sam would have no way of knowing why. He takes another sip of his drink to distract his thoughts.

"Wow, that’s pretty amazing too," says Sam with a soft smile.

"Thanks," he says quietly. And there’s another silence though not quite so awkward this time.

Sam’s phone beeps an alarm from the bag startling them both.

"That’ll be my two minute warning," says Sam. "Afraid I’ve got plane to catch."

"Makes sense, since we’re in an airport and all." Great. Now he’s captain obvious. He’s just not on his game at all today.

Sam makes a face at him that is a mixture of amusement and sympathy as he picks up his own bag. “Well, James, thanks for the eventful break in monotony. Keep an eye on that bag after I’m gone.”

"Yeah, yeah, right. Thanks for the coffee by the way, Sam." The name is unfamiliar but not unpleasant coming from his mouth. He stands up holding his hand out to shake Sam’s again, remembering this time to wipe his palm on his jeans first.

Sam smiles, “of course,” and shakes his hand as well. “Take care, safe flight.”

And maybe he’s just imagining it, but the handshake seems to be going a little longer than normal. “Yeah you too,” and he finally let’s go.

As Sam is walking away he hears Skye sigh in frustration from the stand and she’s glaring at him like he’s personally offended her too and then turns around and grumbles something he can’t hear.

He checks his emails on his laptop for a few minutes and finishes his coffee silently kicking himself for not asking to stay in touch. After a while he packs his laptop away and decides he should head to his gate as well since boarding will be starting soon.

As he gets to the gate he pulls out his phone to put it into airplane mode. There’s a new text alert.

> (202) 555-7074: It was nice meeting you James
> 
> (202) 555-7074: it’s Sam by the way

His heart is pounding and he looks up to see if anyone notices how loud it’s gotten. But no one notices him standing next to the window. He types a reply saying it was nice to meet him too and waits anxiously staring at the phone willing it to buzz.

> (202) 555-7074: maybe next time I’m in town visiting my sister and niece we can grab a real drink

James is sure he’s dreaming now. He’s going to wake up any second now. But nothing happens so he replies that he’d definitely like that and tries to catch his breath that’s gone shallow.

> (202) 555-7074: should be up that way in about a month, so I’ll hold you to it
> 
> (202) 555-7074: well i’m about to board so i should probably shut this thing off
> 
> (202) 555-7074: thanks for the company, James, i’m glad we mixed up our bags

James smiles and wants to melt into a puddle right then and there.  _Me too and my friends call me Bucky_ he sends back.

> (202) 555-7074: Bucky?
> 
> (202) 555-7074: Is that a sex thing?
> 
> (202) 555-7074: Don’t make this weird.

He laughs out loud and suddenly people are staring at him, so he turns away to face the window to hide his face. He can see the luggage handlers loading up the plane.  _No haha, it’s short for Buchanan._

> (202) 555-7074: Buchanan? Did your parents hate you?
> 
> (202) 555-7074: Wait. Are they Republicans?
> 
> (202) 555-7074: Shit. I gotta go
> 
> (202) 555-7074: The flight attendant is giving me dirty looks. I expect a reply as soon as I land.

James grins at his phone like Sam can actually crawl through it and see him. He thinks about how amazing it is he even got here today. He types out a quick reply before he puts his own phone in airplane mode as they start calling boarding rows for his own flight. The last thing he does is add Sam’s name to his contacts.

**Author's Note:**

> This was written in a flurry last night so it's completely unbeta'd. Feel free to point out any glaring typos, grammar errors, etc. in the comments or by messaging me. I'm on [tumblr](http://cylondorothy.tumblr.com/) as well for those who wish to send prompts for this wonderful pairing.


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